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Things really couldn't get worse, could they? I thought worriedly, panic rising in my throat. Of course it could, a little voice said sarcastically in the back of my head. Why don't you just go ahead and slice a big gash open on your wrist. My nostrils flared slightly, angry at the little voice.
Suddenly a quick rapping at the door startled me, and my heart just about jumped out of my chest. "Rosé?" His voice was low and smooth; it was beautiful, even in its worried undercurrent, and I unconsciously backed up closer to the tub. "Are you all right?"
I tried to find the words, but they were caught in my throat, a mixture of embarrassment and fear. With Jisoo this had never been a problem; he'd controlled himself so well around me all the time, but Lisa was another story. I knew that even the slightest bit of my blood bothered him, so what was I going to tell him now? Yeah, Lisa, everything's just great. If you don't mind, I'm going to bleed for about a week, so maybe you could just hold your breath?
I guess I didn't answer fast enough, because the knob suddenly turned, and I hastily wrapped my towel around my waist, mortification and panic wrapped up into one continuous emotion. I tried to reach the door in time, hold it closed, not that it would have helped, but Lisa was too quick. "Wait!" I cried, too late.
It took all of about three seconds for Lisa to understand. His eyes swept the bathroom first, perhaps looking for something broken or sharp nearby, then landed on my discarded jeans and underwear, and finally swept across my lower body where the source of blood was coming from, before snapping up to my face. "Oh!" I never thought I'd see Lisa flustered, and I was sure that if he still had blood running through his veins, it'd pool up in his cheeks as mine was currently. "Sorry!" And he slammed the door shut while I stared on in horror.
Ugh! I wrapped the towel more securely around me and silently cursed the female monthly cycle as I quietly tiptoed back to my room. Lisa was staring out the window, which was open, undoubtedly to cleanse himself of the scent of my blood. He acknowledged me by half turning in my direction.
"Lisa? Are you okay? I mean, I could-" I could what exactly? Stop bleeding? Hah! That was likely. Then a thought occurred to me; if Lisa had been following me for three months then surely he must have been through this before. "What did you do the past three months then?" I asked, at a loss for how to broach the subject pleasantly.
Lisa shifted uncomfortably. "I wasn't really near you, so it wasn't so bad," he told me. I shivered to think of how terrible it must have been for him whenever he went to school, with all those teenage girls bleeding all the time, every month, for years and years.
"Will you be okay? Do you need to leave for a while?" I asked, hoping fervently that he would say no.
Lisa turned to me, respectfully keeping his eyes on my face. "I think I'll be okay," he said. "It just took me by surprise. Just don't get offended if I keep my distance a bit?" he asked, worried.
